Mario Sports Superstars Switch
Mario Sports Superstars Switch ' is a Mario sports title for the Nintendo Switch. It is an updated rerelease of '''Mario Sports Superstars '''for the Nintendo 3DS and it features a new Party Mode. Up to twelve players can participate in this game. It was released on the 22nd of June in 2020. The game features a new story mode that explains how there are five stars in the game's logo. Story One day in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and friends are having a Tennis game in Princess Peach's Castle when the ground starts shaking. A huge Star comet crashes into the roof. It then splits in half and five different colored power Stars rise from the inside of the comet. All the characters in the castle look up and then notice the tennis ball moving towards the yellow star. This indicates that yellow is the color for tennis in the game. They decide to organise tournaments for the sports. Gameplay In a similar manner to another sports compilation, Mario Sports Mix, each sport plays out as their own separate mode. The tennis, golf and Baseball sports play similarly to the Mario Tennis, Mario Golf series and Mario Baseball series specifically each series' latest iteration, Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf: World Tour and Mario Super Sluggers respectively. Each mode will have their own tournament mode, a three tier system that has eight participating players in total, catered to single players. Three cups will be available, with the first cup being the Mushroom Cup while the rest are unknown. Completing the tournament mode for Champion Cup will unlock Star versions of playable characters, who will have increased stats. The player needs to unlock Starred characters for each sport individually. Players can enjoy the game with multiple players, either with local play, playing with friends online, or playing against randoms online. Some sports allow up to two players, four players, or six players. The game does not support Download Play, however. Alongside the main sports modes, additional tabs on the main menu screen include "amiibo Card", "Collection", a settings icon, and a manual icon. A Training mode is confirmed for this game where each sport has different types of training. In all sports barring soccer, players can shoot and strike balls through designated rings, where golf and tennis have modes akin to their respective ring shot modes in previous installments. Soccer allows players to practice their goal shots around posts representing opponent teammates. Coins can be earned when a task is completed, though the exact means of obtaining them are currently unknown at the moment. They are used to spend on cards at the shop. Unlike the 3DS version, the Switch version includes the items gimmick from previous Mario Sports games. Sports Soccer Players participate in 11-vs-11 matches, which consists the traditional number of team members, unlike another Mario-themed soccer series, the Mario Strikers series. Teams are composed of a designated team captain who represents the team with their shield emblem, an assistant captain, who is another team captain character as an ally, a goalie (either Boom Boom or Pom Pom), and the rest are supporting generic characters such as Koopa Troopas or Shy Guys, which are filled out with only one type of character, akin to Super Mario Strikers. Prior to beginning a match, players can adjust placement of their entire team in various formations. The aim of soccer is to kick the ball into the opponent's goal, overcoming the opposing team members and their goalie, who attempts to block balls. Players are recommended to pass the ball to other team members to overcome the opposition, as well as setting up kicks to score the goal past the goalie. Players on the defense can attempt to steal the ball in possession from other players via slide-kicking. However, if the character in possession of the ball is hit without the ball being touched, a penalty is called and the player who is hit by the slide-kicking player earns a free kick. Additionally unlike the Mario Strikers series, there are throw-ins if the ball rolls out of bounds. When the ball rolls out of bounds in the area adjacent to the goalie, corner kicks are initiated instead of throw-ins. When kicking into the goal, players may press and hold the button to charge up their shots; a meter is represented below the character to indicate how powerful the shot will be. Team members are indicated by specific HUD circular markers underneath them, as well as their color on the bottom screen map. On the bottom screen map, both captains are displayed in their current position while the generic characters are represented by dots. Powerful Special Shots can be performed by captain-type characters, where each character has a unique special effect for that shot; a special shot may be initiated when the ball starts to sparkle. Whenever a goal is scored, a replay of the shot is shown, where players can view the replay, skip the replay, or change the camera angle of the replay. After a goal is scored, the opposing team captains get possession of the ball and starts off in the middle of the field, beginning the play again. Baseball Baseball works very similarly to the two game in the Mario Baseball series. Playing similarly to actual baseball; teams take turn batting to run on the bases and fielding. The team who bats hits the ball to the field while the fielders attempt to make the batters out. Once a runner touches the home base, their team earns a point. There are three outs on an inning for the batting team. Once a team gets three outs, they switch sides. Whichever team obtains the most points wins. Teams, led by specific team captains, can have up to nine members. Star Skill return from Superstar Baseball and Super Sluggers. Star Skills can be activated either while pitching or while batting. Anyone in this game can use a Star Skill, but a team captain's Star Skill is superior to a sub-character's Star Skill. Team Captains have mostly different Star Skills, however, captains that usually pair with each other (Mario and Luigi, Peach and Daisy) have similar Star Skills. The amount of Star Skills that can be used is represented by 5 Team Stars in a meter. The amount of starting Team Stars depend on the sub-characters' chemistry with the team captain. Star Skills can be replenished by hitting ball park features. They can also be replenished by striking a player out or making a batter reach a base safely when the words, "Star Chance!" appear. Team captains and sub-characters use up one Team Star while captains as members use up two Team Stars. Tennis Tennis plays very similarly to the Mario Tennis series, with elements and mechanics of the game taken from the two most recent installments, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash and Mario Tennis Aces. Players can participate in either singles, one-on-one tennis or doubles, 2-vs-2 tennis. Characters have an energy gauge that can be used to perform Zone Shots, Zone Speed, or Special Shots. The energy gauge can be increased by simple rallies or by performing Trick Shots, which require proper timing to hit the ball back. Zone Shots can be performed upon reaching a rotating star icon on the ground, and allow the player to aim their shot anywhere on the court using motion controls. The longer they take to aim, the more energy it depletes. Zone Speed allows the player to slow down time to allow them to reach a far-off shot in time. Special Shots are performed like Zone Shots, but require a full energy gauge. Zone Shots and Special Shots are able to damage rackets. Rackets can withstand three Zone Shots or one Special Shot before breaking, and after being broken they are replaced with a new one, forcing the player to retire when they no longer have any usable racket. With proper stroke timing, these shots can be blocked, increasing the character's energy gauge and protecting their racket from damage. In doubles, each pair shares one energy gauge, and if a player's racket breaks during a rally, that player's team immediately loses the point. Also in doubles, each player has their own racket counter. When playing in doubles, the match will end if just ''one player loses all of their rackets (no matter how many rackets that player's teammate has remaining) and that player's team immediately loses. Exclusive to doubles, the result screen also shows '''X marks in the sections where a player's racket took damage, and the X marks are colored as appropriate to show which opponent did the damage to that player's racket. Unlike Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, there is a left-handed option for characters. Golf Very similar to the Mario Golf series, players can golf on one of the many courses. Much of the graphics, HUD, elements, and mechanics are taken from the latest iteration of the Mario Golf series, Mario Golf: World Tour, including the bottom screen that includes information such as ball contact, ball spin, and the power meter. Players can either play two modes: Stroke Play, which players can golf for 9 holes or Ring Challenge, where players need to send the ball through large rings dotted across the course. In golf, players need to sink the ball into a hole within a set number of shots, which is dependent on the course. Players are recommended to score at least a Par, which means the player has taken the number of strokes required for the ball to go into the hole. If players achieve less strokes than required, they earn better scores, such as a Birdie. However, if players take more strokes than required to sink the ball into the hole, it worsens their overall score, and thus are called Bogeys. Golf uses a power meter to determine power and control of the ball. Players need to time the rising of the bar, which determines the power of the shot, as well as the descending, which determines the accuracy of the shot. If players hit outside the marked boundaries of the power meter the time it descends for accuracy purposes, players whiff the shot, often costing a stroke. Players can get perfect accuracy if the bar hits the sweet spot of the meter; if the bar is stopped outside the sweet spot, the ball veers in the direction the bar is stopped at. In other words, if the bar is stopped to the area left of the sweet spot, the ball curves towards that direction, causing some inaccuracy within the shot. Additionally, players can adjust the trajectory of the ball (which is indicated by arrows rising and falling on the main screen) by changing the area of ball contact, indicated by the bottom screen. Hitting the ball in the upper regions decreases height, while hitting the ball left or right causes the ball to curve left or right depending on the direction hit, often used to bypass obstacles such as trees. Newer players can opt for the "easy" option, where players need to manually input only the rising of the bar while the game automatically times the lowering of the bar for accuracy. However, this method is not perfect and may result in mishits, especially if the sweet spot is very low. In addition, players need to take in account of the environment, which causes the ball to behave in different ways. Wind can change the ball's trajectory, and the speed of the wind as well as the direction it blows in depends on how affected the ball gets. Balls that have higher trajectories are more affected by the wind. The ball's lie is also affected by the ground it is on. If the ball is on the Fairway, there are no added penalties to the ball. However, if the ball lies on the Rough or Bunkers, the power and accuracy of the ball gets affected depending on how severe the terrain is. Topology of the course can also affect the ball's trajectory, where, often, more powerful, higher shots are needed to send the ball to higher elevations. Rain reduces power and spin of the shots, and players need to opt for significantly more power when they are putting the ball. Different clubs have different purposes, and players can swap between clubs any time for varying needs. Woods, represented by "W", send the ball flying further at the cost of accuracy while irons, represented by "I", forgo ball drive in favor of accuracy. Sand wedges, represented by "SW" are used to get balls out of bunkers. Pitching wedges, represented by "PW", are used to send balls flying higher and shorter than irons. If the ball is sent too far or not far enough, players can adjust drive distance by pressing and for guidelines on where to lower or increase power of the shot. As well as having different clubs, players can opt for Power shots or approach shots. Power shots have a limited use per round, but can send the ball flying even further and are used typically to aim for lower strokes on Par 4 or Par 5 holes. If players align the bar in the power meter perfectly whenever a power shot is used, they save a power shot. Approach shots are made when players are near the Green, which are weak shots used to knock balls close to the hole. When players are on the Green, players can putt the ball into the hole, using one of three putters depending on the distance to the hole. In this case, players need to time only the rising of the power meter to make putts, where higher bars are stronger putts. Players who putt too weak cannot make the ball into the hole, while too powerful putts send the ball past the hole. Grids on the putting screen indicate topology of the course. Slopes are represented by white balls rolling on the grid, indicating the direction it will roll in. Slopes that are steeper are indicated by quicker rolling balls and therefore, players need to adjust their position more the steeper the slope is. Downhill slopes are indicated by red on the grid while uphill slopes are colored blue. Players need to putt harder for uphill slopes and weaker for downhill. Different types of spins return from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, where players can activate them as soon after they stopped the power meter a second time if they are using manual rather than auto. Topspins send the ball forward while backspins either brake the ball or send the ball backward depending on the height the ball falls from and the speed of the shot. Players can perform a topspin if B is hit twice, while performing a backspin if A is hit twice. Players can use more powerful spins for a longer effect if alternate buttons are pressed; players can perform a super topspin if A is hit first and then B, while a super backspin is performed if B is pressed first and then A. Horse Racing Characters race each other saddleback on horses as they leap over hazards and dodge obstacles, a sport entirely new to the Mario series. Up to six players can participate in a race. Before players start up their game, they can choose and customize their horse. The first option is selecting a male or female horse, and players can then choose a type of horse from four different types and builds: balance, technique, speed, and power. Players can then select horses from a variety of colors, all which have different stats from one another; after that has been selected, players can choose to name their horse. Players can build stables for their horses as well as training them. Players can groom, pet, and feed horses, which betters their mood and thus performance on the track. Mood is indicated by ♪ prior to the beginning of the rate. The higher the rating, the better the horse's mood is. In the field, players can find areas of interest by walking around on their horse. If a wooden crate with a ? block is found, they receive an accessory, where players can decorate their horse with, including their saddle, hats, and the color of the bridle and reins. During offtimes such as these, players control and view their horse in a first person perspective. After everything has been set up, players can choose to race their horse among other opponents. Horses have stamina, where players can replenish their stamina through collecting carrots. Each character has different ratings of stamina; characters who have higher stamina means that the horse tires out less. Collecting stars throughout the track fills the bar for the Star Dash technique, where, if fully filled out, players can use it to get a speed boost. Double jumps can be performed to reach higher items that cannot be reached with single jumps. Horses travel faster when they are in a pack, in a phenomenon known as the Herd Effect, so stray players such as those far in the lead travel slower than when together. Party Mode In addition to the tournament and the exhibition modes, Mario Sports Superstars Switch has five party games, one for each sport. They can be played for up to four players. All Party games have at least three levels. Characters Mario Luigi Yoshi Birdo Peach Daisy Waluigi Boo Baby Mario Baby Luigi Toad (new) Diddy Kong Bowser Jr. Dry Bones (new) Donkey Kong Wario Ice Piranha Plant (new) Bowser Rosalina Metal Mario (unlockable) Pink Gold Peach (unlockable) Link (DLC - new) Toadette (DLC - new) Zelda (DLC - new) Inkling Girl (DLC - new) Inkling Boy (DLC - new) Pikachu (DLC - new) Dry Bowser (DLC - new) Category:Games Category:Fan Games Category:Mario (series) Category:Nintendo Switch Games Category:Nintendo Nexus Games